Reliving
by SmallTownRebel
Summary: Andromeda is kidnapped by her sister and taken back to her childhood home to face Voldemort...oneshot.


**Disclaimer:** It's all JK Rowling's.

* * *

I am in trouble. Again. Yes, everyone who knows me, you can shut up. I'm always in trouble. Ted is forever telling me that I need to watch myself, because I will get someone (he usually means him) in trouble, hurt, or possibly killed. Sirius is forever telling Ted that he is being overly dramatic, and that I know how to handle myself. However, I don't think even Sirius and Ted will be able to get me out of this one. Because this time, my sister's got me. And I don't think I'll be coming out of here alive.

* * *

I'm not really sure how I got here, to tell you the truth. One minute I was leaving Ted's (having dinner with his parents and siblings continually unnerves me. They're so unlike anything I've ever known before, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to act around them…) and the next moment, I was in my old suite of rooms, freezing cold and sore. I'm not sure how long I have been here, but it has been at least a day. I know, because I watched the sun. I sat in my window seat and watched the sun make its slow, steady way across the sky.

While I am sitting there, I like to think that my friends are organising a rescue operation. As unlikely as that may be, it keeps me from going insane while I sit there, whittling away the hours with nothing to do.

Although I would never admit it to my sisters, or any other Death Eaters, I am absolutely terrified of what is going to happen to me. Night comes and goes, and still I sit. I am too scared to sleep, and my thoughts are so scattered I doubt whether I would be able to sleep anyway. I don't want to be caught unawares, either. If a Death Eater comes for me in the night, I won't be caught sleeping.

But no one comes. I wait through the part of the day I am awake, and all through the night, but I wait alone and in vain. It seems that everyone has abandoned me. My friends, my family, even my enemies. No one cares what happens to me. And I find that I don't even mind it. I need the time to be by myself, to collect my scattered thoughts. How had I got here? It didn't matter. Why was I here? It would be revealed in time.

The only question I do not need to ask myself was _where_ I was. That I knew, sure enough. How could I not know? I had been brought up in these rooms, had spent my entire childhood confined between their stifling walls. It made me shuffle uncomfortably, to be back. I had left this life behind, had made my choice. To be forced back here, to be confined here again, nearly made me sick. I struggle against my nauseousness, and tell myself to relax. It takes all my self-control, but I have finally settled my nerves, when the door opens. I stand from the window seat, and I find myself face-to-face with…

"Bellatrix."

"Andromeda."

Bella is exactly how I remember her. Cold, cruel, unforgiving. Her dark eyes glint dangerously as she looks at me, and I stare back at her, my fears forgotten for the moment. Being back in Bella's presence is both invigorating and terrifying. I have never, for one moment, doubted the fact that Bellatrix Black, my beloved older sister, has hated me from the moment I walked out of this very house, the moment I left my pureblood life behind and joined the blood-traitors and mudbloods.

"The Dark Lord requests your presence, Andromeda."

I stiffen. Lord Voldemort is the last person in the world I want to see right now. Bella is second on the list, and Cissy is third. Cissy, like Bella, has never forgiven me for leaving and falling in love with Ted.

"And if I refuse?" I ask boldly.

Bella's reaction is immediate, and I expected no less. She slaps me with such force that I am knocked off my feet, and I lie on the floor at her feet, my lip bleeding freely.

I am exactly where Bella wants me. She knows that as long as she stands over me, she holds the power. She has always hated the fact that she had to look up to speak to me, being smaller than me. With me on the floor, and her standing, she feels in control.

"You dare not refuse."

She is right. I dare not refuse her. If it had been someone else who had come for me--Lucius, or Rodolphus, perhaps--I would have no trouble refusing. The Dark Lord is cunning, and knows this. That is why he sent Bella, I know it right down to my bones, though Bella never said anything of the sort. If I refuse my sister, I will be taken before the Dark Lord by force. And being forced to do something by Bella is not on my list of Top Ten Things to do Before I Die.

"Very well."

I do not expect Bella to help me up, and I am not disappointed. She walks to my door, and waits while I pick myself up from the floor and wipe the blood from my mouth. I take my time, prolonging the inevitable moment when I will have to stand and follow her, possibly to my death.

Bella makes an impatient noise in her throat, and I know I am pushing my luck, not moving for her. So I raise myself from the floor and walk toward her.

"Lead on, Bella dear," I say, infuriating her.

She chooses not to answer, and opens the door angrily, leading me out into the hallway I know so well, the hallway I used to walk down at night to crawl into bed with her and Narcissa. I feel the tears starting in my eyes at those memories, but I push them away. Those days are over. Bella is a cold-blooded killer, and Cissy is well on her way to being one. In her seventh and final year at Hogwarts, Cissy is only too eager to be done and join Lord Voldemort's service.

As Bella leads me down the hallways of my childhood home, I cannot help but think that perhaps I really am all alone. With my father's magical defences, and the ones Voldemort has most likely added to the house, Dumbledore and the rest of the Order are unlikely to be able to find the house, which means they can't find me. I resign myself to the inevitable, and send a silent good bye to Ted, and to Sirius. Dear Sirius, who always sheltered me from my imposing, ominous parents, and then from Bella and Cissy later. Darling Ted, who helped me realise that there is more to life than pureblood mania, and who taught me that to love is indeed one of the greatest adventures.

We reach the room that was my father's study when I was a young girl, and Bella knocks imperiously. It is not an unfamiliar scene to me; Bella was forever being summoned by our father for some mishap or another when we were young, but she would never dare enter without knocking. It brought the tears again, to see Bella doing something so familiar. No, I reminded myself, Bella is not familiar. Not anymore. And nothing Bella does is familiar.

"Enter."

The cold voice is unfamiliar. I have never heard Voldemort's voice before, and I decide I do not like it. It is so not so very different from that of my father, and I never felt any real affection for my father. Not really. I felt affection for him in the way that you feel for someone who gave you life, but is far removed from your life in every way.

As Bella opens the door, I get my first glimpse of Voldemort, and my face contorts as Bella pushes me to the floor, in a sort of perverted homage. I feel nauseous all over again, and I have to look away. This pleases him.

"Bella, you have done well, bringing me your sister. You are dismissed."

I feel Bella's anger pulsating off her. She does not want to leave. She wants to stay and watch me being tortured, to hear my screams, to be the one to kill me. My Bella, my sister, the one who promised to protect me always. She wants to kill me. I feel it. I know Bella, and I know she hates me. She wants to kill me. This knowledge unnerves me.

Unable to refuse her master's wishes, Bella leaves the study, but not willingly, and not without making one final statement. On her way out, Bella kicks me in the side, and spits on my face. I gasp, and clutch the place where her foot hit me. I think she broke a rib or two. I use the sleeve of my robes to wipe her saliva from my cheek--the very cheek that she slapped earlier.

"Andromeda Black."

The way he says my name, it is like a caress. As though he enjoys the way it rolls off his tongue, although I do not. His voice is cold, and has no feeling. The way he says my name makes me feel…bad. It makes me feel wrong. The way he says it is so different from anything I've ever heard before. With Ted, it is the name of a lover. With Sirius, a favoured family member. My father never said my name at all, if he could help it, but when he did, he was all crisp and business-like. With Bella, my name has always held some sort of passion. In the early years, it was a sort of love, and in later years, it was hatred, but always something. With Voldemort, his voice is devoid completely of emotion, and I do not like it.

"I have heard much about you, Andromeda Black. Your sister speaks of you often, though most of what she says is not pleasant. I know you are a blood-traitor, but I would be willing to put that aside if you will serve me. I sense you are much like Bella, in your passion, and you would be a valuable servant."

A million smart-mouth retorts come to my mind, but I bite my tongue. I want to say that I am not like Bella. I want to ask why they continue to call me a blood-traitor, and can't come up with something more original and creative. I want to say I will never serve him. I want to say I am a human being, not something to be used and disposed of. I want to say all these things, but I hold my tongue. I will not give him the satisfaction of knowing he has angered me.

"What have you to say, Andromeda Black?"

"I will never serve you." I hiss quietly. So quietly. I barely hear it myself.

"Pardon me?"

His voice is colder. I know he heard me. I do not want to repeat myself, but I do, louder, with more conviction.

"I will never serve you." I say.

I force myself to look up at him. His face is even uglier than it was before, and I see that he is furious. This pleases me, to know I have made the one others fear angry with me. It pleases me to know I hold that power.

"You have signed your own death warrant, Andromeda Black. I feel no regrets about killing you."

He raises his wand, and I prepare myself for death. But it does not come. I expect Avada Kedavra from him, but it does not come. Instead, I hear his cold, emotionless voice say the other word.

"_Crucio_."

The pain is like nothing I've ever felt. I scream, and I know that if Bella were here, she would be laughing. As it is, it is only Voldemort and myself, but he is laughing nonetheless.

When the pain subsides, I slump to the floor, out of breath. He is still laughing, and asks, "Now how did that feel, Andromeda?"

I do not deign to answer him, but try to regulate my breathing. I know that I am infuriating him, by not answering. It makes me feel…powerful. I'm not sure I like the feeling, but there it is. I hold power over the Dark Lord, because he wants me, and he cannot have me.

The next time the curse comes, I am more prepared, but the pain still makes me scream. I cannot hold it in. this time, Voldemort does not laugh. He does not say anything.

"Are you ready, Andromeda Black? Are you ready to serve me yet?"

I glare up at him from the floor. I am in an awkward position, with my legs tucked under me, and my hands holding me up, and I glare at him through my long black hair. I can feel more blood dripping from my mouth, but I do not care.

"I will never serve you."

This time, I know death is next on the list. No more toying around, no more being nice and letting me live, albeit in pain. This time, he means it, and as he raises his wand, I prepare myself again to die.

In that moment, a million thoughts fly through my head. Ted, poor darling Ted, who will have to go on without me. Sirius, who really will be alone, a Black in a world that hates Blacks. Cissy, and Bella, who will finally be rid of the sister they hate, the sister who disgraced them and left them alone.

But before Voldemort can speak a word, I hear someone else's voice, shouting.

"_Expelliarmus!_"

I look to the door and see Dumbledore rush in, followed closely by Ted, Sirius, James Potter and Frank Longbottom. I do not look back towards Voldemort as I rush into Ted's arms, and pass out. I know no more.


End file.
